Although the global pandemic continues, we should always keep positive mindsets. I am located in Shanghai, China. New local COVID-19 infected people just appeared in Shanghai after several of months of no infections. But people here are not in panic after experiencing the pandemic ‘war’ last year. Instead we are full of a sense of security resulting from three aspects – SPEED, PROCESS, and SOVEREIGNTY.
SPEED
Qingdao only took 5 days to complete the nucleic acid test (NAT) for all tens of millions of people in the city. A town in Daxing District of Beijing only took 2 days to complete NAT for more than 20,000 residents. One of the largest hospitals in Shanghai only took a few hours to complete NAT for the entire hospital staff and patients. This speed and efficiency ensure our sense of security through the data results.
The same applies to enterprises. Enterprises shall ‘test’ their suppliers speedily. SupplyOn’s Risk Management solution includes a set of “epidemic prevention packages“. Companies firstly collect on-the-spot data from suppliers via an online pandemic questionnaire. It is efficiently send to suppliers around the world with just a click.
Suppliers only need to open the webpage to fill in the questionnaire. The data will then be analyzed in real-time and presented as dashboards to the buyer companies. All these steps can be completed within a few minutes.
Now finally, companies can achieve s stronger sense of security through this. But testing for its own sake is not the real purpose. The true purpose is to ensure supply continuity. Consequently, based on survey data and indicators, companies can directly initiate action plans with suppliers for short/mid-term emergency.
PROCESS
There is an old saying in China: no rule, no circle. Different rules and processes are implemented for different groups of people (foreigners, medium and high-risk areas, low-risk areas etc.) during the epidemic prevention period.
This, too, applies to enterprises. Enterprises need to implement a resilient supply chain process. This process should cover the entire end-2-end spectrum, from source -> R&D -> procurement -> delivery -> invoicing -> after-sale.
Like epidemic prevention, the processes are different for different types of materials. For example, different materials have different supply and demand models. Are you needing an efficiency supply chain or a responsive supply chain? Make-to-Order or Make-to-Stock? PO or VMI? SupplyOn’s Supply Chain Collaboration solution already takes those into consideration and supports full-process coverage. This truly enables companies to have a sense of security that processes can be followed, data can be traced, and risks can be predicted.
SOVEREIGNTY
Shanghai is the first city in China to start the circulation plan “only mention the place but not the (infected) person”, which can better protect the privacy of patients. Nowadays, data privacy leaks are more common, violations are more covert and with more serious consequences. This points to hidden dangers for information security in the development and utilization of big data.
And again, the same applies to enterprises. Fortunately, companies can gain more sense of security through SupplyOn. We always follow the principle that sovereignty over data belongs to companies themselves. Companies have ownership over user management at no additional cost. Also, SupplyOn provided epidemic survey tools for free during the epidemic.
We learned from the pandemic that it is impossible for any company or individual to deal with economic, environmental, social and technological challenges alone. The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos mentioned trust building. It’s the same with enterprises. Companies must join hands with their supply chain partners to grasp the key year 2021, strengthen the trust of all parties, create a security “chain”, and establish a trust “chain”.
